1. Field
The described embodiments relate to techniques for communicating information in a wireless network. In particular, the described embodiments relate to techniques for communicating an arbitrary attribute type using a predefined characteristic having a numerical identifier.
2. Related Art
Wireless communication is an increasingly popular technology for communicating information between electronic devices. In particular, these electronic devices may include networking subsystem that implement a network interface for a wireless local area network such as: a wireless network described in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard, Bluetooth® (from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group of Kirkland, Wash.), and/or another type of wireless network.
However, while these specifications facilitate communication between electronic devices, they are often inflexible. This can make it difficult for electronic devices to communicate with each other.
Using Bluetooth Low Energy as an illustration, characteristics (which are sometimes referred to as ‘attribute types’) can be defined to allow associated logical values to be communicated between electronic devices. Thus, a heart-rate monitor may have predefined characteristics for the heart rate of a user or the remaining battery life. When one of these predefined characteristics is invoked in message received by the heart-rate monitor, the heart-rate monitor may return a corresponding message with a current value of the heart rate or the remaining battery life. However, if the desired attributes types are not known in advance, it can be difficult to use characteristics to communicate information between electronic devices. This inflexibility may make it difficult for users to perform basic tasks, which may reduce user satisfaction.